Antiangiogenic therapy with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitors is the current first-line treatment in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitor has been recently added to the armamentarium of mRCC treatment. These therapies are based on treatment with antibodies that block programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathways, demonstrating impressive response rates and improved survival in several tumour types. So far, nivolumab is the only approved anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody after VEGF therapy in mRCC. According to preclinical and clinical studies, combination therapies with VEGF- and checkpoint inhibitors have synergistic effect achieving improved response rates. However, toxicity in some combinations is high. In this article, we present a review of the ongoing trials with these drug combinations for RCC.
Keywords: Angiogenesis inhibitors; Cell cycle checkpoints; Drug combinations; Immunotherapy; Renal cancer.